Billy Elliot Tour Changes?

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 12/12/10 at 6:11pm

Just got back from a performance of the Billy Elliot Second National Tour (I loved it just as much as Broadway...creative tour set, Faith Prince was great, etc), and I was curious if anyone here knows why they edited many of the F-words out of it. This was especially noticeable during Solidarity. At first, I thought they might've edited it down for a matinee performance, but then the word was used several times during the later part of the show. It was definitely a bit censored, and I thought that was really odd. Anyone have any insight into this?

[roses_turn]

Posted: 12/12/10 at 6:42pm

I saw the show twice (this Saturday and last Saturday). I hadn't seen it before, so I didn't notice it on the 4th, but I definitely noticed that they cut a LOT of the vulgarity and left it purely for Mrs. Wilkinson/Faith Prince. Was a little odd, I agree. There were a LOT of children in the audience, though, and as far as I'm aware it was not labeled with an "explicit" warning like Avenue Q was when it came here to Cleveland, so....maybe it was just a precaution?

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 12/12/10 at 6:49pm

Maybe they just cut it for this Cleveland? Seems strange, but when Avenue Q and Spring Awakening came through, many people were very upset.

[threetwoone]

Posted: 12/12/10 at 6:56pm

I've noticed changes like this in other shows too. In Legally Blonde, the line "'I'm straight!' 'You were not yesterday'" was changed to "'I'm straight!' 'You watch Project Runway'" for the tour.Earlier in the show, during "Blood in the Water", a drug reference was also removed: Original Line: "And he can get you high and laid." Edited line: "And he can even get you laid." Later in the tour, however, both of these were changed back to the original lines.

Also, in The Spelling Bee (Broadway and Equity tours I saw) during "Woe is Me", Logainne yells "JESUS CHRIST," During the non-equity tour I saw, she yelled something else instead. I think it might have been "ENOUGH!"

I've often wondered why some shows are edited like this when they go on tour.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/12/10 at 9:32pm

I believe they started toning down the profanity towards the end of the BE run in Chicago and then brought those changes on tour. I could be wrong, though.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 12/13/10 at 4:36pm

"Maybe they just cut it for this Cleveland? Seems strange, but when Avenue Q and Spring Awakening came through, many people were very upset."

Changes were made to the script in Chicago (I think in early October) to lessen the amount of profanity spoken by the children (though I know many AMERICAN children who use much more profanity, and I grew up in Chicago). I think the producers are grasping at straws as to why the show isn't "Wicked" or "Jersey Boys" on the road.

As for changes to other shows, I think people wouldn't be surprised that road presenters OFTEN ask the creative team to make changes so that it has a broader appeal (Jeff Marx revealed to me that the changes insisted by these presenters is one of the reasons they opted for Vegas first). And I when I say "broader" the implication is the term is meant to mean "less offensive."